Friday, January 4, 2013

Erasing Time Review

Why I Read It: It was new and shiny at the library (that's the thing, there's not much in the YA section I haven't seen before), and sounded interesting.

A Quick Intro: Identical twin sisters Sheridan and Taylor Bradford are suddenly dragged forward in time, four hundred years in the future, and as far as their aware, they have no way home (theoretically, things can only move forward in time, not back in the story). The world is a very different place. Everyone lives in protected domes, warring with other domes. Everyone has dyed their hair and painted their skin- fashions have changed, society has changed. Everyone's rank is displayed on their chest. The language is so different that they need a translator. There are only two people who understand their language in the future. Echo and his father, Jeth are historians. And not all is well in the pods. The Dakien, which are an organized crime group seem to run the city from the shadows and the "Doctor Worshipers" have a religious (religion is forbidden) resistance of their own. And now the twins are the target by the corrupt government and the Dakien, four hundred years from home with no one to turn to but Echo, who was a twin himself, and secrets of his own.

What I Thought: The concept of time travel is always risky. The concept of how they move through time was relatively sound-I could see the explanation working (the time freezer), and the DNA composition seems pretty sound, the only part that doesn't sit with me is the looking for DNA in the time streams. But that's the "what if" part of science fiction. I really like the changes in language. That was neat because languages can change very fast.

The romance didn't really work for me (I mean, it was okay toward the end... but... instalove and spontaneous snogging (though the second may just be a normal future thing)...). The plot twist was something that I kind of called. It was a bit predictable on some points, but it was still a neat read.

Fun Fact: The city pods are somewhat similar to the ancient Greek city-states, which were often at war with each other. They were also the birthplace of democracy, in Athens (though it didn't last long, and disappeared for a very long time after that).